The Light
by GreyEyesGlaringAtShonda
Summary: This is a Cristina and Burke story. It ignores everything that happened in the last few minutes of “17 Seconds.” Burke isn’t the one who got shot. updated!
1. Chapter 1

The Light 

By greyeyedgirl

A/N: This is a Cristina and Burke story. It ignores everything that happened in the last few minutes of "17 Seconds." _Burke_ isn't the one who got shot. The plotline was thought up by **bebec,** and was requested by her. This story is dedicated to **bebec.** I hope you like it.

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If you ask a child, almost any child, in the world, to list something scary, their list will go on and on. "Mon-stures." "Ghosts!" "No, witches!" But among the list of goblins and demons, vampires and zombies, there is one never-changing detail, one item that will show up on every toddler's list…the setting is the same, of all of their fears. Children are afraid of the dark.

Darkness, it seems, is no more than an absence of light. However, there are _so_ many things human beings need the light for. It not only brings us sight but it brings us warmth, comfort. Standing against the wall in a lighted room, you have no surprises.

"Thank you," Preston Burke said, handing his cab fare to the taxi driver. The man nodded, looking grateful for the tip, and Burke closed the door, heading into the hospital.

Inside of the hospital, a man stalked along the corridors, looking inconspicuous just in the fact that he looked like Hell. In hospitals it is come to be expected that people don't look their best, whether it was from the blaze of the fluorescent lights shining directly on their faces, or the stress and pain of watching a loved one suffer, or being the one feeling the suffering.

This man, though, looked like Hell for _several_ reasons, none of which have been listed thus far. It wouldn't be the burden of a guilty conscious, as might be one's first guess, but the anger of being betrayed, of being hurt, and even most predominantly of not wanting to get caught trying to perform his task.

There was a woman going into a door just ahead, looking thoroughly annoyed about something and not paying him the least bit of attention. Walking towards the door, Petey stopped, reading the small engraving on the wall next to the entrance. An on-call room.

Cristina slammed the door to the on-call room, not taking any notice of the young man occupying the hallway. She'd had a long day, and even though she knew there were patients to attend to on the floor below her, she just needed _two minutes_ to be by herself. Watching her patient forgive her fiancé had threw her, and she didn't like it. **_Bitter,_** they had called her. Well, so what if she was! Didn't she have a reason to be? Didn't she—

She exhaled loudly, turning on the light and sitting on the bottom bunk of the bed, not trusting herself to lie down. She stared at the wall for a moment, thinking, when the door swung open.

Cristina jumped, looking up at the man from the hallway in slight confusion. He did not look fearful or sorry but full of anger, and Cristina instinctively knew to jump up from the bed and take a step back. She felt her heartbeat stop when he pulled the gun from the pocket of his jacket, holding it up directly in front of him. Her sight seemed to fade away, for everything went black, she got a glimpse of Burke's face, and then pain erupted through her entire right shoulder.


	2. Chapter 2

The Light 

Chapter two

By greyeyedgirl

Dedicated to **bebec.**

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"Preston?" Burke turned, having just entered the door to Seattle Grace, and saw Richard Webber coming towards him.

"Yes, Chief? I'm sorry, I'm in a bit of a rush, I need to check on Denny Duquette and I'm on a bit of a tight time frame-"

"This won't take long. I need you to go to the ER and get Addison Shepherd, tell her to go to room 517, a patient named Camille Webber-"

Burke nodded, turning, then glanced back at him, confused, but Webber had already turned back and rushed in the opposite direction.

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Bailey stepped off of the elevator, exhausted. She'd left her patient with one of the ER interns, who didn't know their ass from their esophagus, and now was heading to get the book she had left that morning in an on-call room, after working a long shift. She sighed, pushing her hair behind her ear. _What do I still have to do today? Get the results from Mr. Johnson's labs. Check on Denny Duquette. More importantly, check on **Izzie.** Make the appointment for William at the pediatrician-_

Bailey stopped, having opened the door and started to trip over something. She had to hold back a scream, the blood rushing from her face. "Somebody get two gurneys!" She heard a foreign voice that sounded like her own, but most certainly could not be, scream down the hallway. She felt tears rushing to her face, reaching over the man still holding a gun to his head and felt for Cristina's pulse.

She let out a large breath of air, feeling the beat at her wrist, and Cristina's eyes fluttered open, as she tried to move and her arm gushed blood.

"Cristina, don't move! We're going to get you on the gurney, it's going to be okay." By that time three nurses had arrived, pushing two gurneys. Olivia and Tyler started picking Cristina up and lifting her onto the gurney; Debbie looked down at the other body and raised one eyebrow to Bailey concernedly.

"That one's already gone," Bailey said, looking down at Petey's body with no pity in her eyes. "Page the morgue," she told Debbie quietly, following Olivia and Tyler's footsteps, as they rushed Cristina down the hallway towards the elevator and to Trauma.

"GSW to the right shoulder, no exit wound spotted yet but we'll be able to get a better look once we get to Trauma. Patient is conscious but drowsy-"

Cristina was making a sort of moaning sound, Bailey leaned down to hear her. "What is it, Cris?" She asked softly.

"Burke," Cristina muttered, quietly but clearly.

"We'll page him immediately, of course. I believe he's still at Mercy West, but we'll get him as soon as we get a hold of him, Cristina."

Cristina shook slightly, then tried to sit up, as they turned the gurney to push it into a Trauma Room. At that moment, Burke pushed open the door to the ER, still wearing his jacket and looking rushed. He wiped at his face, tired, then glanced up.

He stopped frozen in his tracks, seeing the back of Bailey pushing a gurney into the room, and got a glimpse of Cristina's face, drained of both color and life, and a mass of curly dark hair.

Burke pushed past a row of filled up gurneys, including Cristina's patient and her ducking fiancé, almost sprinting to get to the Trauma Room, not being able to believe what he had seen, feeling the fear grip at his chest.

He could see her struggling through the blinds, and he threw open the door to the Trauma room, entering as he tried not to show his franticness. "Cristina!"

"Dr. Burke---" Bailey said, looking up at him and trying to calm him down.

"Burke, I'm fine," Cristina mumbled, as he, without thinking about it, pushed Tyler out of his way in his haste to get to her bed.

"What happened to her? What--" He stopped, noticing the vast amounts of blood that was staining her scrubs and the gurney. He seemed at a loss for words.

"She has a GSW to the right shoulder, with no exit wound. The shooter was the one responsible for the shooting earlier at the restaurant, his picture was on the news. He…shot himself."

Burke seemed to be slightly disbelieving, he looked down at Cristina trying to hide his fear. "What's her temp? BP? Why aren't you ordering labs?" He yelled. He turned to Olivia. "Go page Meredith Grey. Tell her to get here, now." He looked at Tyler. "Go let MRI know we're coming, and page Shepherd. Go!" The nurses scattered out of the room. Cristina actually allowed a small smile.

"Temperature is spiked to 102.1. BP is 150 over 90 and rising." Bailey looked down at Cristina, sadness etched onto her usually passive face.

Burke looked down at Cristina, feeling his heart try to rip itself apart. "Can we have a moment?" He asked Bailey numbly.

Bailey looked nervous. "Of course sir. But…only a moment. We don't want to waste any time." Her voice trailed off, and she slipped out of the room, looking uncomfortable.

"Hey," Burke said quietly, leaning over Cristina's bed and speaking to her for the first time. "It's gonna be okay. Whatever you need, whatever I can do for you…it will get done. Cristina, I--" His voice broke off, and he bit his bottom lip, his eyes almost glistening.

"Burke," Cristina murmured, knowing he was about to apologize.

"_No,_ Cristina," he said, moving his hand so it was touching her hair, and brushing across the side of her face.

"Cristina, I'm so sorry…" He whispered hoarsely. "What happens at home should stay at home, I know, I---"

"Burke," Cristina said again, still quietly, but this time slightly more forcefully.

Burke took her left hand in his and squeezed. "No, Cristina. I have to say this. What I did was completely unprofessional, it--" He seemed to be trying to find the right words, he bit his bottom lip harder and looked towards the ceiling.

"Cristina, I---"

"What the hell is going on here?" Chief Webber came barreling into the room, looking shocked. There was a moment where a look of regret came over his face, in which he seemed to realize he'd walked into a pretty intimate moment, but he quickly tried to make his face impassive.

"We have a member of the SGH staff in trauma, and I wasn't paged? What is going on here?"

Dr. Bailey came rushing into the room, subtly trying to keep a distance between Webber, who looked like he was trying to look professional, and Burke, who was gazing at him dazedly.

"Sir, there was a shooting in the fourth floor on-call room…the shooter killed himself, we've paged the appropriate people to get the body taken care of---"

"_There was a shooting on **hospital grounds?** Actually IN the hospital?_ Why didn't anyone get a hold of me? Why---"

"Because it only happened a few minutes ago, Sir," Bailey said quietly. Richard turned, looking at her, then glanced down at Cristina, who was still bleeding and looking white. Richard averted his gaze immediately, looking stung.

"What's her BP? Temp? Is there an exit wound, how is she doing?"

"Sir, I'd love to finish this conversation with you, but we need to get her down to MRI immediately, as soon as Dr. Shepherd gets here to---"

"I'm here. What have we got?" Derek came hurrying into the room, then froze. It was obvious Tyler had not mentioned the patient's name.

"Come on. I'll get you briefed." Burke looked down at Cristina one last time, before pulling Shepherd out of the room, the chief following. "Take care of her," he said quietly to Bailey over his shoulder.

"Cristina…I need to take care of your wound, stop the bleeding. Then I'll get you some morphine and some stuff to help you fight the infection---"

"Bai…Bailey. Bailey, I---"

"Shhh," Bailey said, looking heartbroken. "It's okay…Don't waste your strength."

Cristina was shaking her head, trying to talk between moans.

"No…Bail-Bailey, I'm pregnant."

Miranda Bailey stood up, looking at her in shock and some horror. "Cristin-"

"Okay. Let's get her down to MRI, _now._" Derek said, coming into the room but now followed by only Webber. Bailey stared with her mouth open, trying to process what she'd just heard.


End file.
